Ok I know I said in my last post that it would be the last time that we would call the baby itty bitty. But I forgot that I haven't posted my 20 week update yet. So I am doing this before I do the big name reveal. Even though anyone that has me on facebook knows it- it's ok. It is special and deserves to have a post.

Date: January 30, 2011 How far along: 20 weeks (+1 day when I am typing this)Total weight gained: Oh geez... 15 lbs. I asked the nurse to just make a number up to write on the paper and not put me on the scale. At least I weigh myself at home before going to the Dr so I know what to expect. Sleep: Yes please?Best moment of the week: Finding out we are having a baby girl! And doing registries (even though it was really difficult)Movement: Bubbles and popcornFood Craving: Nothing specific this week. Food Aversions: Nothing this week here either. Gender: GIRL... much to our shock. But we are thrilled!Maternity clothes: Please warm weather that was here yesterday, come back to stay because I was so comfortable in my gauchos. Symptoms: I am getting bigger and bigger lolWhat I miss: Still nothingWhat I'm looking forward to: Booking our babymoon (post about that later)Weekly wisdom: Remember last week I said fill out the baby book every week... my wisdom this week is- Take your own advice preggo!Milestones: We are halfway there!

According to thebump.com the baby is the size of...

a cantaloupe!
Baby gulps down several ounces of amniotic fluid every day, both for nutrition and to practice swallowing and digesting. And, these days, those taste buds actually work! Studies show that after birth, babies respond best to tastes they've already had via amniotic fluid. Meaning, think about what you'd like your future child to eat as you prepare your own lunch.

Great! I love cantaloupe! (But not the canta-loopy drink from China in Epcot)

It just dawned on me that I never uploaded our 19 week picture (and of course have not taken the 20 week picture yet). Hopefully by the time this posts the 19 week picture will be added. And maybe even the 20 week picture!

Update: I am just a slacker with getting these pictures up here. Deal with it. I am always a week behind with posting the pictures.

Well, we are halfway to our due date. I can not believe it. This past week dragged and dragged because all we wanted to do was get to the doctor and get our ultrasound. Friday at about 2:00 I was a big ball of nerves. I couldn't even get any work done on my break because I was so nervous and excited. No one at the office ever told me to drink x amount of water or not use the bathroom before going in. Two hours before my appt I couldn't wait anymore and had to go. Apparently this was bad because my bladder didn't fill back up fast enough even though I drank water and orange juice. We ended up getting some great pictures of the baby.

The first thing she told me was that I have an anterior placenta. That was probably the most comforting thing I have heard since I wasn't sure if I was feeling the baby or not and that explains why I may not be feeling it enough or at all. After that the nerves were gone. She got some great profile shots of itty bitty and checked everything out. The kidneys, stomach, umbilical cord insertion, brain, heart, etc are all fine. The heartbeat was 148 again and beautiful! We got a lot of beautiful profile pictures because itty bitty was in a great position for them.

Finally, after checking everything out she asked if we were going to find out the sex of the baby. I said yes (I am dying here lady!). It is my own fault that itty bitty did not want to reveal anything. I had said earlier in the day that I didn't care if I couldn't find out the sex as long as I could see that the baby was healthy. Yep- itty bitty is healthy alright...and stubborn! No matter what the u/s tech did the baby kept its legs crossed. (At least we know our baby isn't flashing the world its business!) She was even bouncing my entire stomach to try to get the baby to move. Baby moved- but NOT the legs. If that were me being bounced around, it sure would have disrupted my comfort!

Since the baby did not want to reveal itself, we got a preview of the 4d technology while we were waiting and hoping for some uncrossed legs. In the middle of it we noticed moving legs so the tech went back to the regular screen to try to get some shots. She kept saying she knew the gender but she likes to show and not tell. She saw something else that told the gender but wanted us to get the clear view. We got to see the baby's butt quite a bit lol. The tech was explaining how she wanted to show us and said "I really want to get the picture of the three lines for you"... having been reading a lot of pregnancy blogs and forums I knew what that meant. I wasn't sure if Tim knew what that meant so I just kept my mouth shut. Finally- we got the shot of the three lines...

and we are having a beautiful baby GIRL!

Can you believe it? We are shocked. I asked her to check quite a few times. And she did. We counted three lines quite a bit. Afterwards I asked Tim if he was sad and he said no, just that he won't have a boy to play football. I assured him she could play football with him. He also said he was starting to figure it out when we were getting all the butt shots and moving shots and there was nothing showing anywhere. We decided on a baby name before the appointment so I asked Tim if that is what we were sticking with and he said yes. So we now have a name (that I will share later- as in- in the next post :) )

I have lots of ultrasound pictures to share but I want them to have their own post when I formally introduce you to baby girl S.... with her real name. So for just this one last post you will know Baby S as itty bitty.

By the time anyone gets to read this, I will hopefully be finding out of I have a little mr or a little miss. I really am still convinced boy. As of 6:40 pm there are 6 hours left to vote on our poll and the results are tied! 28 people voted and 14 think boy 14 think girl. I bet if you could have voted more than once my cousin Ann would have voted a million times for girl. She is convinced! I already know how we are going to tell the blog/facebook world about the baby. And I have people giving me specific orders to let them know immediately.

Ashley wants me to call and say simply "boy" or "girl" and hang up (so I can call her before the Dr. comes in to see me)
Amy wants me to have Tim text her a b or g... just a simple letter because I can't make a pregnant girl wait any longer- she says!
Everyone else just wants to know asap.

My students (well the girls anyways) have figured it out. Little K (if you remember I think I posted that she rubbed my belly before I even knew I was pregnant) finally blurted out the question yesterday in line for lunch. She said Mrs S are you pregnant. And they are just so cute and curious I couldn't lie anymore- it doesn't help that I can't hide it anymore. So I just said yep. Her response (mind you we are in the hall...) "OH MY GOD YOU ARE! I KNEW IT I KNEW IT!" And there starts the chatter of all the little girls all the way up my entire line. Then K says "Is it a boy or girl" idk K I will know Friday. "Oh... how are you going to teach when it comes out?!" To which another student replies "Mrs B did it!". I told her not to worry because "it will come out in summer". She was really relieved that I wouldn't be disappearing while she was in my class.

Our building engineer kinda let the cat out of the bag for Amy today when he said something about it in front of her whole class. She is farther along than me and a couple of her girls had been asking her too. Amazingly, not all of them heard it- proves how much kids pay attention huh? Later in the day, two little girls from her class (remember we share the double wide so her kids know me pretty well) brought me a picture (each of them) and said "Mrs M told us...ya know" at which point she made a belly bump motion with her hands. I laughed and thanked them. The one little girl wrote "I wish your baby is as pretty as you are" How sweet! These little girls are intuitive though and they all knew all along I think. I think Monday I will let them guess if they think it is a boy or girl and write me a paragraph about why they think that or why they want it to be that. (Gotta get some kind of a grade out of it- writing is always needing practice.) Then I will tell them. The boys are so clueless about it but the girls you can tell want to be all in the know. As annoyed as they can get me, I just love them!

Be on the lookout for your results. Since you will possibly be fortunate enough to know before my class. But don't hold your breath- we have to work this Saturday. I may just keep everyone in suspense!

Ok ok so I didn't win an oscar or anything, but I did get my very first blog award x2! I would like to thank Erin from A Journey to Our Baby and Ashley from Praying for our First Bundle of Joy (I hope I can do these both at once!) for giving me this award. I haven't been in the blogging world for too long but began following their blogs recently and I just LOVE them! I can not wait until their babies are born! I am so glad that they enjoy reading my blog (hopefully) just as much as I look forward to their posts!

The rules for accepting this award are:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you the award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award 15 other bloggers.

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.

7 Things About Myself

1. I am Italian from Buffalo NY. It isn't a good idea to make me mad. I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I was walked all over too much when I was younger and since being taught to stick up for myself I don't take anything from anyone.

2. I have been best friends with my best friend Ashley since we were in 5th grade. We were each other's MOHS and I think I gave a pretty rockin' speech at her wedding. (Of course she gave a fantastic one at mine too- but hers was more recent so I figured I should boast about how amazing it was haha)

3. I really like to cook and bake when I have the time but I hate to spend money on food that I am afraid won't turn out right when I cook it. Which is why I am obsessed with my crock pot and crock pot cook books. I can't possibly mess those ones up.

4. I love to read. Reading takes me away from everyday stress and real life. I do not read things that make you think. I read "chick lit" and love it.

5. When I was in high school my parents gave me the choice to take a family vaca to Hawaii or to Disney... I chose Disney. After my going 5 times in the past 5 years (once being a 2 week honeymoon and once being a week bachelorette party with my BFF a month before the honeymoon), my dad still doesn't understand my obsession. And I am already looking forward to taking itty bitty to Disney for his/her third birthday.

6. I am not a typical girl. I do not love shoes. I do not love shopping. I think shoes are cute. But not logical for my job. I can not teach in cute shoes. I have to be practical. I hate shopping because I don't like to have to try a million things on. I end up giving up. Maybe after itty bitty is here and I lose weight I will like it more. I am however obsessed with purses. It used to be a Coach obsession but I am trying to not look at them anymore so that we don't spend a fortune on a purse.

7. I have lived in the "south" for 2.5 years and my family and friends say I have an accent. I do not say "ya'll" or "fixin to" or any of the other crazy things they say. But I have picked up some of them (apparently throw the trash - which I do say - Tim says is southern because back home we said take the garbage out) and the accent is there. I try to lose it but I talk too fast to think about how I sound when I talk.

15 Blogs I adore: (I don't follow 15- and two of them are the ones that gave me the award- I do not expect them to do this again- am I allowed to make up these kind of rules)

Tim is out of town for work for the week. By the time anyone reads this, he will be back. But let me tell you what a mess I am without him home! And I don't mean I am crying or anything. I mean literally I would lose my head if it weren't attached. And this is all while my mom is staying with me! On Monday Tim left to drive up to Evansville (I think) to train someone for work. It was a holiday so I didn't have to work. Tuesday morning it all went down hill... I was afraid I wasn't going to leave on time having to take care of the dog (feed him and try to get him to potty before I left), make my lunch (yes, Tim makes my lunch because I just don't function fast enough), make and eat my breakfast, get all my stuff to the car, and leave... I thought I was doomed. While I was eating breakfast though I looked at the clock and realized I was making great time! (And I even straightened my hair!) I took the dog out one last time to potty, and he did (SUCCESS!) We went in, got his treat, put him back in bed and I loaded up the car and left. I was pretty impressed...

I got around the corner and didn't know if I locked the back door. Anyone who knows me knows that I would have been freaking out all day if I didn't check. So I parked, ran to the back door, and locked it just in case it wasn't already locked. I ran back to the car and promptly stepped in dog poop. And it was raining... needless to say it would NOT come off my shoe. So back around the corner and into the garage to get a new pair of shoes. Got about 5 minutes from home and had no idea if I unplugged my straightener. Again- would have worried me all day. So back home I went to check. I texted Amy telling her I was going to be late and asked her to watch my class for 5 minutes until I got there.

I checked the straightener (it was unplugged) locked up again, and left. Again, it was raining... in Memphis. Where people can't drive even if it is bone dry outside. So of course, I got stuck in traffic. I ended up being 25 minutes late instead of 5. After that frantic morning I had an observation (which went well I think). If this was how my week was starting I had no idea how I was going to get through until he got home.

I told Tim I have no idea what we are going to do when this baby comes and he has to go train someone. My mother will have to take off work so she can stay at my house because I will be even more frantic with a dog and the baby! Other things have been not working out for me while he has been gone too. I have forgotten more than once to take out something to cook for dinner and other things that I just can't even remember right now.

So all in all, this post is to say that I have no idea what I would do without Tim. Lose my head if it weren't attached is the main one. Not to mention I can't stand when he is not home. But.... he is making a lot of extra money for this trip which means more stuff for the baby! Itty bitty is pleased to get more presents, I just know it!

We are planning to go to see a movie when he gets home. I think we were planning on the new one with Ashton Kutcher. (At least that is what I am planning...) Let's just hope itty bitty doesn't make me too tired before Tim gets here! We decided to watch one of our dvds instead. Relaxing night in sounded much better to me.

I love you babe and we all miss you (me, itty bitty, and Roscoe the poochie face)

19 weeks... almost halfway there! I can't believe it. And just around the corner from our big ultrasound. Not too much thrilling has been going on this week. I am still exhausted- big surprise right? Have you noticed that we have music on our blog now? I love to just open it up so I can listen to the music. Sad I know. Here is the 19 week update:

Date: January 22, 2011 How far along: 19 weeksTotal weight gained: I seem to be fluctuating between 10 and 12 pounds. I will know for sure at the doctor on Friday. I hate their scale! Sleep: It is getting worse and worse. I toss and turn all the time. Best moment of the week: We picked a boy name and a girl name so we will have one to start calling this baby as soon as we know if it is a boy or girl! And we decided on a babymoon (TBA later)Movement: I don't know if the baby is moving or if I am going crazy.Food Craving: What don't I eat? Seriously- everything sounds good when I am hungry, and even when I'm not!Food Aversions: Well... 19 weeks and we had our first one this week. I made tacos and they did not sit well. BUT that does not mean I will not get Mighty Taco as soon as I get to Buffalo in March. Because I am going to eat it, even if the baby gets mad!Gender: Still saying boy, but at least we have a girl name picked just in case. Maternity clothes: Nothing new here. I can't wait for warm weather!Symptoms: same sameWhat I miss: nothing really besides Ms. Energy still... What I'm looking forward to: Starting our registry Friday after the ultrasound. Going on our babymoon. Going to Buffalo for our shower. Weekly wisdom: Fill out the belly book each week... trying to fill in the past 18 weeks all at once is very difficult!Milestones: We are under 7 days to the big ultrasound and almost half way there! I preregistered for the hospital today and have started looking at our childbirth class options. It looks like we will do an all day Sat instead of the 7 weeks of 2 hours sessions. I called my insurance to ask important questions and my disability insurance to ask them some questions. I feel better having the answers- but there is no guarantee I will remember them haha

According to thebump.com the baby is the size of

a mango!
Vernix caseosa, a greasy white substance made of lanugo, oil, and dead skin cells (yum) now coats baby's skin, shielding it from the amniotic fluid. (Picture yourself after a nine-month bath, and the need for protection makes sense.) You might get to see the vernix at birth, especially if baby is premature

I don't feel like there is a mango size anything in there but I sure look like it! This is going to post obviously before we have a picture but I promise to try and get one in soon. I am hoping that I look a little more pregnant before I go home in March so we can do maternity pictures while we are up there.

Oh and I forgot to post about another book that I read recently. My parents bought it for me for Christmas and I finished it a day or two later. It is:

I have always loved the Chicken Soup books so this one was just perfect. I finished it so fast that I forgot to post about it! If you have ever read any C.S. books and enjoyed them, then this is a good one.

We have also started looking at bedding sets but have only looked at boys sets so far. We were just looking to get ideas but won't be seriously looking until next week. I also found a new pattern for the travel system that I love at Target. It is this one:

It is gray/silver ish with swirls on it and the orange obviously. I really like that it is simple and can be for a boy or girl. And hopefully the gray won't get/look too dirty. It so far is our front runner! I think it is snack time for us now :)

Only 5 more days to vote on if you think we are having a boy or girl. We find out in 6 days! Can you stand it?! Make sure you get your vote in so I can post the results once the poll closes. We have 24 votes and I know there are more than 24 of you that are reading this! Scroll down and look at the right sidebar, under the followers (which if you read this and aren't following, click that too!) until you find the poll and click away! Itty bitty loves for people to take part!

Since one of my goals is to read for enjoyment every night (even though I may not do it every night) I wanted to share what I have read recently and what I am currently reading.

I just finished reading

and started reading the second book in a 3 book series.

The first one was pretty good. It is about a single girl who decides she is never getting married but instead playing matchmaker to a bunch of her friends. It is Christian fiction (I believe that is the category) but I really enjoyed it! I actually accidentally bought these books when I was buying books by another author I liked. They were in the list and were reduced so I grabbed them thinking they were the same author. When they came in the mail I realized my mistake but didn't really mind because they sounded good. The third book is

but it will take me a while to get to this one I imagine.

I also just finished reading

which was a very easy read and funny. It is pretty down to earth and straight forward blunt. But if you are pregnant or planning to get pregnant or even know someone who is pregnant, this is a fun read. I think I finished it in a couple hours. And because I enjoyed it so much I bought

that I will probably, honestly, wait until the baby is born to read since it is sure to be an easy, funny read and I will need something simple and quick (that will probably end up taking me forever to read at that point ha).

I also have

that I really enjoy because there are 3-4 pages for each week that just tell you what is going on with the baby, things to do, things to come, etc. I like that it isn't very overwhelming or text book like and I can read it quickly while getting ready for work.

Other books that I have that I plan to read are:

Recommended by Sarah

and

that I actually found on a recommendations page and it seems interesting

and lastly (at 50% off) I got

Recommended by Becca

For now, I think, that is all that I have. I haven't seen any others that I really wanted yet, but then again, Tim doesn't like me to go into B&N very often. It is never a cheap adventure and he hates that I take forever in there, even if I don't buy anything. I do however have a ton of "for fun" books on my shelf and on my nook to read. So whenever I get to those I will post about those too.

Since I had a snow day last Monday and it was Tim's off day, we decided to go to Babies R Us. We looked at a bunch of random things before making our way over to the travel systems. I loved that we could take them out and test them. While looking we focused on these two...

We loved the way this one turned and it was very easy to maneuver. I like the idea of the jogging stroller having a travel system. They did have three other jogging strollers that can be used with specific car seats, but we didn't test those out. We tried folding this one up and struggled a bit at first. Then when we finally got it one of the pieces fell off (no we didn't break it, there were supposed to be screws in it but the worker said they weren't in). We then couldn't get it back open. Can you tell we haven't done this before? BUT when the worker came over to help us he had issues too. He said that usually they open easy but the demo models get used and abused so much that sometimes that isn't the case. The other thing I am worried about with this one is that the tires will go flat or pop.

This one we LOVED. While we were looking at it a new dad came up to us and told us he has that one and they love it and not two seconds later his wife came around the corner with it and was boasting about it. She said it was definitely worth the extra money. This one folded up a lot easier than the baby trend system. And the car seat didn't feel that heavy- of course this is without the baby. I should have thrown my purse in there for measure... that thing is heavy enough. I don't know if we really tested out the weight of the babytrend car seat. This is so far our big contender. There is another pattern that they sell in the store and it is this one...

We didn't actually look at this pattern but looking at it in pictures it seems more gender neutral than the other. We will have to look at them a bit more when we go back. I want a neutral travel system so it can be used with the next baby. I think next time we go we will pull these three out and compare the fabric and design, the weight of the carseat and stroller itself, and the easy of folding/unfolding. I know the baby trend turns a lot easier than the others but I have to really weigh all the pros and cons of all of them. I think I might want to pull out the other jogging strollers they had and see what car seats work with them and see how I like those too. But I am thinking it will come down to one of these three.

On our way out, we looked at some random things (bedding, clothes, pack and plays, etc.) and after that overwhelming thrilling (seriously, I had so much fun! and I thought it would be overwhelming) experience of testing out strollers, Tim found a gold mine in the clearance bin. Well.... a gold mine in his mind...

These were marked down from $10 to $2. So we got both since we don't know if this is a boy or a girl. When we went to check out they were even cheaper and rang up at $1.20 each! You can't beat that for MLB hats! He is so excited about them! Our first fun purchase together for baby! (So far all we have bought together is some diapers, wipes, lotion, soap, and qtips.)

We were going to go back on Monday to BRU but found out Tim had to work so the next chance we will get is to go after our ultrasound, when we plan to start our registry. And hopefully finish it soon after that because our shower will be in March since it is my spring break and the only time I can really take time to travel to Buffalo before the baby is born.

Well since we are over two weeks into the new year, and I made my class write about their resolutions for the year, I figure now is a good time to post mine. Mine aren't typical because, honestly, who sticks to them? I decide every year I am going to lose weight (with the exception of this year obviously) and how long do I actually stick to a plan.. probably not even a week. This year I decided to make more goals for myself instead of one BIG thing. With this baby coming I need to get a handle on how I can finish all my work and still have time for home and family things. So I figured if I started these goals now I might have it figured out by June.

1. Grade papers as students turn them in- even composition. This is a big one. I always put off the writing papers for last because I hate grading them. So far there are no papers stacking up to be graded!
2. Get lesson plans done by Saturday when Tim gets home from work. This way Sundays I can just make my copies and get last minute things done. This week my plans are done for next week and I am pretty impressed.
3. Use my planning time wisely. A lot of times I procrastinate doing who knows what and then end up bringing a ton of work home with me. So far, so good.
4. Read for my own enjoyment every night. I haven't done this every night but I did finish 2 books that I had started and have started another one. Plus I have some baby books I want to read (yay for another post to be coming!)
5. Keep the house straightened up. I am notorious for throwing stuff on the table when I get home and by Friday, we can't eat at it. So far I am doing pretty good. The bedroom isn't in the best condition but that is because we got a new shelf and pulled out our frames we want to hang so stuff is all over.

I know all this looks pretty boring and blah... but in reality if I can stick to it, it will give me more time to spend with itty bitty. And that is ultimately the main goal. Spend as much time as possible with this little one and not let work get in the way.

I think that is all of them. So far I am feeling pretty productive even though Ms. Energy hasn't returned.

Right after Christmas I did a post about all the gifts we had gotten that were for the baby or baby related. But in my exhaustion I was too lazy to go into the other room and take pictures of stuff that we had already put away. Finally today I went into the baby's closet and took pictures of the things we had in there and a few other things that were already in the baby's room.

Made by Michelle :)

The cutest little book from Amy, Jason, and soon to be Aubrey

From my parents... I have matching PJs that this came with! We will be wearing them in the hospital if only for 2 minutes to take a picture!

From Becca and Jay and (not so Baby anymore) James

Tim bought me this but I never took the picture because I already had it on display. Once we get our u/s we are going to put a new picture in there... one that looks more like the baby.

This was not a gift..I bought this because I thought it was cute and it is big enough for next Christmas!

Tim has bought one more thing for the baby but I want to put that in the post about our Babies R Us experience... so that will come soon..

Ok, I know this blog is mostly about itty bitty. But it is about our lives too, and what would our lives be without Roscoe the pooch. He is our first furbaby after all (and at this rate, will be our only because he is spoiled rotten) and he deserves to be acknowledged for his cuteness too. Let's face it- he is pretty cute and does a lot of cute things. Most of which can't be portrayed enough through pictures, but they will have to do for now.

On Sunday night, the kids must have all flushed ice cubes down the toilet (probably all weekend they did this) and we had snow... a couple inches. Nothing to shake at, but enough to close schools! YAY SNOW DAY! Roscoe was pretty excited about it because he didn't get to see me all weekend. Since we knew I wasn't going to work the next day, we decided to go outside and play with him in the snow. At first it was ok because there wasn't a lot of snow and he was being brave. He had just gotten a haircut though and was really cold so we didn't stay out long (his little paws were just too cold and he started hopping trying to get them out of the snow).

On Monday we took him out to play during the day when the accumulation had really built up... 4 inches folks! (Yes Buffalonians this was exciting for us in Memphis- it closed school after all!) He did not think this was a good idea...

Mom, don't you know how stupid this white stuff is!?

Eventually we got him off the back patio and playing for a little bit, but not long. He pulled the old hopping trick again so we brought him back in. But as you can see, he was fine because he did his happy dance to get a treat.

It's not so bad!

Maybe if I just eat it...

Getting a treat

Later that night, Tim said the dog was loving the snow and wanted to play, so even though I had to work the next day, out we went at 10pm to play with the dog in the snow. He loved it! He thought the snow was a treat and was trying to play fetch with snowballs.

Look at me!

Trying to catch the snowball

Waiting for Tim to give him the snow

Yum!

Happy dance

Since he had just gotten a haircut Sunday he didn't get too much snow stuck to him like he did last year. Just to give you an idea of what last year's disaster was after playing in the snow, here are two pictures.